Chapter Summaries

Griseo cleared the factory of corrupted Ethereals and a security robot, allowing Ye Shunguang to reach the sea of Black Flowers. With help from her other self, Ye Shunguang purified them and reaffirmed her desire to protect ordinary moments of happiness.

• Griseo expanded her barrier through the factory, destroying the corrupted Ethereals and disabling the security robot.
• Jianshu explained that the robot had been corrupted and had tried to protect the factory.
• Wise spotted a vast sea of unpurified Black Flowers, and Ye Shunguang found its central flower.
• Ye Shunguang asked her other self to help, and together they used the Azure Nether Sword to purify the Black Flowers.
• Belle supported the exhausted Ye Shunguang, who said she wanted to protect people's everyday happiness and become a worthy Azure Nether Swordmaster.

The group discovered a battered statue of Wanzhou at the factory, and Jianshu confirmed that it remembered stories from Roskellifa about her. Jianshu began describing a tale of salvation and betrayal, but Griseo interrupted to argue that Elysia loved humanity more than Wanzhou, leaving the group off topic.

• After Ye Shunguang cleared the Black Flowers, the group entered the factory and found a headless statue and a damaged wanted notice naming former guard captain Leonid Antonov, Yulia Gryacheva, and a former chief technical officer named Wan.
• Griseo examined the statue’s damage and the wing-shaped wall design, then suggested that Wanzhou’s former worshippers might have turned against her and cursed her.
• Griseo confirmed that the statue depicted Wanzhou, and Jianshu revealed that it came from Roskellifa and remembered stories about Wanzhou.
• Jianshu called the story one of salvation and betrayal, then said Wanzhou’s love for humanity had not earned her the love and respect she deserved.
• Griseo interrupted to insist that Elysia loved humanity more than Wanzhou, and Belle redirected the group when they began arguing over it.

Jianshu told Wise a story about Wanzhou's rise in the Ruins, her betrayal by the ruling class, and her encounter with the [Primus]. Wise wondered if the story explained Wanzhou's later achievements, but Jianshu said its truth could not be verified.

• Wanzhou used Huiling Stone medicine to treat Ether Corruption and developed Radiant Porcelain, earning the people's reverence and gathering companions including Leonid Antonov and Yulia Gryacheva.
• The lord grew jealous and feared Wanzhou's influence, then plotted to eliminate her after she opposed his plan to intensify mining.
• Wanzhou led the Fifth Squad to investigate a Huiling Stone vein while the ruling class purged workers at the production base, sparking resistance and a disaster that awakened the [Primus].
• After the mine collapsed, Wanzhou returned to find the lord accusing her of inciting revolt and causing the Hollow crisis, so she went alone back into the Hollow.
• Wise asked Jianshu if the presence Wanzhou encountered was the [Primus], but Jianshu said the story was unverified and might have no value.

Belle, Griseo, and their companions investigated Lady Wanzhou’s connection to the Black Flowers and hurried into the factory, while Yixuan and the Yunkui Mountain disciples formed a barrier against the spreading Lemnian Hollow. The barrier was weakening, and Yixuan prepared to rely on the Nine Extremes Formation as the Hollow’s boundary neared Chenghui Plateau.

• Belle suggested that Lady Wanzhou and the abnormal Corruptive Breath were connected, while Jianshu admitted he had stayed because he sensed his master’s presence.
• Griseo argued that Elysia had continued to love humanity despite any suffering, and Belle recalled a ballad about her Signet of [True Self].
• Jianshu led the group toward the factory, where they hoped to find the source of the Black Flowers before Ether activity reached its predicted peak.
• Yixuan, Ye Shiyuan, Pulchra, Pan Yinhu, and the Yunkui Mountain disciples activated the Four Symbols Sealing the Gods formation to protect Chenghui Plateau and purify its Black Flowers.
• As the formation weakened and the Lemnian Hollow’s boundary approached, Yixuan prepared to use the Nine Extremes Formation, Nine Palaces Flying Stars.

Wise and Belle repaired the factory generators and saw another illusion of Professor Carole, deepening the mystery around her. While Belle and Wise investigated, Griseo explained that she planned to use them to channel the Azure Nether Sword’s two clashing powers and ease Ye Shunguang’s backlash.

• Wise and Belle repaired the three generators, opening the factory gates, where the group saw an illusion of Professor Carole discussing the Azure Nether Sword and the Tail-less Demon Blade.
• Ye Shunguang briefly forgot who Carole was, then collapsed as Belle and Wise left to investigate; Griseo stayed to heal and steady her.
• Ye Shunguang asked why Griseo had brought Wise and Belle, and Griseo said both had immense power within them.
• Ye Shunguang recalled that the Azure Nether Sword sealed two opposing forces and that its Swordmaster served as a sacrifice to maintain their balance.
• Griseo explained that she planned to have Wise and Belle each receive one of the Sword’s powers, giving the energies somewhere to vent before she guided them into balance.

Wise and Belle uncovered more of Teacher Carole’s cryptic visions before an Insect Ethereal ambushed Belle. Pelois took control of Wise’s body to save her, then confronted Griseo and Ye Shunguang about their plan.

• Jianshu led Wise and Belle to clearer Corruptive Breath visions in which Teacher Carole spoke of the Azure Nether Sword, a costly choice, and her hope that her children would survive.
• Wise and Belle concluded that Teacher Carole had been at the factory and had sacrificed something to save them, though they could not understand what she meant by the smallest possible cost.
• Wise powered open a door, and Belle entered a room filled with black flowers despite his warning about Ethereals.
• An Insect Ethereal attacked Belle, and Pelois took control of Wise’s body to protect her and destroy the creature.
• Pelois identified himself to Belle and demanded that Griseo and Ye Shunguang come out, accusing them of following a plan.

Griseo revealed that Wise’s consciousness was occupied by Pelois and persuaded him to cooperate with the plan involving the Azure Nether Sword. Pelois demanded that Griseo prove herself, and she stepped forward while suppressing most of her power.

• Pelois addressed Belle as his little sister, while Ye Shunguang and Jianshu struggled to understand the sudden turn of events.
• Belle explained that Phaethon referred to her and Wise’s branch of Helios, while Icarus was the branch of their friends Selpico and Trevia, who died in an accident.
• Griseo guessed that Selpico and Trevia had crashed, surprising Belle with her knowledge of Helios’s past.
• Griseo told Pelois that he had already helped Wise save Belle, then said he would help guide the power of the Azure Nether Sword.
• Pelois agreed to cooperate but demanded that Griseo convince him by facing his power.
• Griseo stepped forward and dimmed all her Signets except The Stars Signets, preparing to match Pelois at his level.

Griseo and Pelois fought beneath Griseo’s starry domain, with Griseo using the spar to help tame the power within Wise’s body. After Pelois increased his strength and copied her layered Ether technique, Griseo took the initiative and trapped him with star threads.

• Griseo activated [The Stars] and created a domain that restored her grown-up appearance and contained the fighters’ attacks.
• Pelois fought Griseo using Corona, and Griseo gained a slight advantage with a layered palm strike.
• Pelois concentrated his strength and launched a fiercer offensive, gradually taming the power stored within Wise’s body as the two clashed.
• Pelois imitated Griseo’s layered technique, but Griseo blocked his attack and used star threads to erode his power and bind Corona.
• Griseo announced her turn to attack and sent star threads after Pelois from every direction, leaving him with nowhere to run.

Griseo fought Pelois, who used Wise's body, and forced him onto the defensive until he unleashed powerful Ether attacks and briefly gained the upper hand. Griseo then summoned Eden to play music as their duel entered a new stage.

• Griseo's starlight threads disrupted Pelois's [Corona], and her light sword forced him back while Belle, Jianshu, and Ye Shunguang watched.
• Pelois used Dawn Morning Star and Scorching Day Sinfire to strengthen Wise's body and drive away the starlight threads.
• Griseo and Pelois exchanged blows, and Pelois detonated golden Ether in his palm to send Griseo flying back for the first time.
• Griseo summoned Eden's [Gold] Signet and asked her to play music, and Eden formed a piano from starlight and began performing.

Griseo overwhelmed Pelois with her control of Ether Energy and a steadily escalating star-powered assault, while Pelois fought through Wise’s body. As Pelois’s borrowed power began to fade, Wise watched from within and mocked him, though Pelois remained defiant.

• Griseo completed her star-charging technique and traded blows with Pelois, repeatedly countering his attacks with her Ether Energy control.
• Ye Shunguang explained to Belle that Pelois was burning through power for a brief burst and would likely lose once he could no longer sustain it.
• Griseo gathered three kinds of starlight and drove Pelois back, wounding Wise’s hand and later slicing his left shoulder as The Stars domain healed him.
• Eden played through the battle’s climax while Griseo pressed her attack, and Jianshu noticed the golden Ether light around Wise beginning to recede.
• Wise mocked Pelois from within his consciousness, but Pelois retorted that it was Wise’s body taking the beating.

Griseo defeated Pelois in their duel and secured his cooperation, while Pelois vowed he could challenge her again once he grew stronger. The chapter ended with the author lamenting the novel’s poor earnings.

• Wise urged Pelois to admit defeat, but Pelois insisted he would defeat Griseo.
• Pelois’s surprise attack failed when Griseo’s armor stopped [Corona], and Griseo trapped him in a web of starlight that drained his Ether.
• Pelois abandoned defense and charged Griseo, who met his attack head-on and left him badly injured.
• Griseo demanded Pelois’s strongest attack, and Pelois revealed the Authority known as [Sun].
• Griseo struck Pelois down, and Pelois surrendered and agreed to cooperate, though he said he would challenge her again when stronger.
• The author complained that daily updates were earning less than ten yuan and had shattered their fighting spirit.

Griseo began the next phase of her plan as Ye Shunguang joined her two personalities to purify the Black Flowers with the Azure Nether Sword. Ye Shunguang collapsed at the brink of death, and Griseo sent two spheres of light toward her while promising they would meet again tomorrow.

• Eden and Qianjie headed toward the Lemnian Hollow to help the Obol Squad, while Griseo prepared to have Ye Shunguang purify the Black Flowers.
• Ye Shunguang entered the Black Flower field and used the Azure Nether Sword to resist the Corruptive Breath.
• Ye Shunguang reconciled with her other personality, and the two joined forces to unleash the sword's full power.
• The Azure Nether Sword's moonlike radiance dissolved the Black Flowers across the ruins, then fell from Ye Shunguang's hand as she collapsed.
• Belle caught Ye Shunguang, whose body began to fade as she experienced collapse.
• Griseo's domain covered the area and she sent golden and starlit spheres toward Ye Shunguang, telling her they would meet again tomorrow.

Jianshu detonated the mine to injure Griseo, then used the destruction to begin summoning the First Lord. Belle and Wise faced Corruptive Breath-induced hallucinations as the First Lord began to awaken.

• Belle found Ye Shunguang unresponsive, while Wise noticed Jianshu was missing.
• Griseo shielded Belle, Wise, and Ye Shunguang when Jianshu triggered the mine’s self-destruct sequence.
• The explosions forced the group into the underground mine, where Griseo was badly injured and shrank back into Little Griseo’s form.
• Jianshu emerged and began a ritual to awaken the First Lord, drawing Anomalous Corruptive Breath into the sphere on the altar.
• The Corruptive Breath affected Belle and Wise, who began seeing hallucinations about Phaethon and Carole.

Jianshu trapped the group and revealed its plan to awaken Primus and remake humanity, while Griseo collapsed after purifying the Corruptive Breath. A second intelligent entity inside Jianshu then spoke up, exposing that it had a partnership with the Bangboo.

• Jianshu flooded the pit with Anomalous Corruptive Breath, but Griseo purified it at the cost of her strength and fell into Belle's arms.
• Jianshu told Wise and Belle that it planned to awaken Primus and turn the world into a Hollow, claiming the new world would save humanity.
• Belle challenged Jianshu's account of Lady Wanzhou and rejected its promise of a uniform, peaceful world.
• A second voice interrupted Jianshu and argued that it should kill the group instead of talking, while Wise admitted he could not control his golden power.
• The second entity announced that it and Jianshu had an equal partnership, as a warning identified it as a highly intelligent data entity with similarities to a sample.

Vill-V and Griseo captured the Ether Intelligent Construct inside Jianshu and copied its data, while Wise and Belle learned what had caused Jianshu’s abnormal behavior. Jianshu then defended its cooperation with the Praise Society and accused Phaethon of accepting New Eridu’s injustices, calling them the Sinner’s Child.

• Vill-V arrived, seized Jianshu, and revealed that Griseo had only pretended to be badly wounded.
• Vill-V connected a device to Jianshu while Griseo used [Discipline] to help contain the Ether Intelligent Construct.
• Griseo explained that Jianshu’s behavior came from the construct inside it and that she and Vill-V had planned to capture it.
• Vill-V finished copying the construct’s data, disconnected her device, and left as Jianshu returned to normal.
• Jianshu admitted to cooperating with the Praise Society and condemned New Eridu’s inequality and exploitation.
• Jianshu challenged Wise and Belle to acknowledge the unfairness and called Phaethon the Sinner’s Child.

Jianshu rejected Wise and Belle’s refusal to join its cause and attacked them in a combat mech, forcing them to draw on their abilities to survive. Belle unexpectedly blocked a blow with a new art, but Jianshu escalated the fight by deploying the mech’s cannons.

• Jianshu revealed that it knew Wise and Belle’s identities, urged them to join its plan for a unified new world, and promised to preserve their souls through purification.
• After Wise and Belle refused, Jianshu climbed into a black combat mech and attacked them with lightswords and powerful fists.
• Wise dodged the mech’s first attack and called for Pelois, whose power helped him evade a punch.
• Belle recalled Griseo’s lesson and formed an Ether shield that repelled the mech’s fist, then began laughing as she imagined becoming a master of the arts.
• Jianshu extended the mech’s back-mounted cannons and declared that the fight was about to end.

Belle tried and failed to use Taixu Sword God against Jianshu’s mech, buying time for Wise and Pelois to attack. Pelois destroyed the mech, while Jianshu escaped in a pod.

• Belle boasted that she could use Taixu Sword God, but both attempts failed to damage Jianshu’s mech.
• Griseo pretended to remain unconscious while recognizing that Belle had not even begun to master the Taixu Mental Method.
• Belle asked Jianshu to let her say one last thing, then called for Wise and Pelois to make their move.
• Pelois took control of Wise’s body and severed the mech’s left arm with [Corona].
• Pelois dodged Jianshu’s lasers and counterattacked, cutting off the mech’s remaining arm and damaging its torso and core.
• Pelois destroyed the mech in an explosion, and Jianshu escaped in an escape pod.

Jianshu recounted how hunger and violence after the war drove them to break their prohibition and kill their master, leading them to seek a world ruled by [Primus]. After revealing they had only been stalling, Jianshu announced that [Primus] was about to descend as the Cocoon cracked and black mist surged toward Ye Shunguang.

• Jianshu recalled how their starving master ordered them to steal food from a woman and baby, then killed an elderly woman who tried to help them.
• When their master moved to attack the woman and baby, Jianshu broke their prohibition and killed him, then resolved to create a world without suffering.
• After Pelois defeated them again, Jianshu explained their past to Wise and Belle and argued that humanity needed [Primus] to end conflict.
• Wise demanded that Jianshu cooperate to stop [Primus], but Jianshu revealed they had used their story to buy time while the Cocoon absorbed Corruptive Breath energy.
• The Cocoon stopped absorbing energy, cracked open, and released black mist that spread toward Ye Shunguang as two voices announced they had finally obtained what they wanted.

Griseo’s plan trapped [Primus] and unleashed the Azure Nether Sword’s power, while Lemnian Hollow surged toward Chenghui Plateau. Yixuan and Hua joined forces to halt the Hollow’s expansion, leaving its boundary temporarily contained.

• Hua trapped [Primus] inside Ye Shunguang with the three Signets, and Griseo took control of the formation with the Azure Nether Sword.
• Griseo sent Belle and Wise into the formation cores, then shattered the Azure Nether Sword and unleashed two pillars of energy from Lemnian Hollow.
• Yixuan flew toward Lemnian Hollow to protect Chenghui Plateau, while Ye Shiyuan and the others held their formation cores.
• Yixuan used the Nine Extremes Formation to resist Lemnian Hollow, but the backlash injured her and threatened to collapse the formation.
• Hua arrived and helped Yixuan reinforce the Nine Palaces Flying Stars, stopping Lemnian Hollow’s boundary from advancing toward Chenghui Plateau.

After suffering the Azure Nether Sword's backlash, Ye Shunguang awoke in what seemed to be her ordinary family life, though memories of another reality and unexplained tears unsettled her. The chapter left her rushing to school while still unsure whether the warmth around her was real.

• Ye Shunguang fell into darkness after her body collapsed from the Azure Nether Sword's backlash, then woke in a bedroom and answered her mother calling her Xiaoguang.
• Ye Shunguang glimpsed memories of a sword, white radiance, and Black Flower, but hurried downstairs when her mother threatened to drag her out of bed.
• Ye Shunguang saw herself crying in the bathroom mirror and felt something press against the glass from the other side.
• Ye Shunguang ate breakfast with her parents, questioned why the familiar scene felt unreal, and learned her brother had already left for school.
• Ye Shunguang's father reminded her she had thirty minutes before she would be late for school.